Thoughts on Money

Small Planet Institute co-founder Anna Lappé once said:

“Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”

Being "good with money" means you know how to USE it. Saving money is one use, but it's not the exclusive way to put your money to work for you .

A lot of financial mistakes come from trying to copy people who are different from you.

But here’s the key: Money work isn’t about getting rid of our uncomfortable emotions. It’s about learning to respond to them, to work with them, and to learn from them.

And most importantly, to not let them steer you in directions that will make life harder for you.

This is the kind of work we do as financial advisors. We help clients lean into the tension between money and meaning. It’s not about quick answers! It’s about living with the questions long enough to align their money with what truly matters.

That was our first lesson. To earn money, we did some house chores that we called “job-jobs”.

You could only do the paying “job-jobs” after your regular household chores.

She continued to build on this by talking to us about our futures and encouraging us to save to meet different goals instead of spending it all.

We need to remember that the market is not the economy, and the economy is not the market. And the economy makes me very worried about food banks. Children are hungry, people are hungry. And when kids can’t eat they can’t pay attention in school, and if they can’t pay attention in school they can’t be good students; they can’t move forward in the... See more